Eskom pledges follow-up on Soweto listener's charge of 5-month delay in restoring electricity

Residents of Johannesburg's townships have been complaining of problems with Eskom transformers in some areas, and also being charged by Eskom employees to restore transformers.

On The Afternoon Drive, Dobsonville resident Angeline Molete tells her community's story of being without electricity for five months, despite engagement with local councillors and Eskom's customer care service.

"We've been in communication with Eskom since July.... and in our latest conversation with (assistance officer) Senzo Khumalo he said that they would be on site on Wednesday or Thursday, and they didn't come."

Angeline Molete, Dobsonville resident

Thabo Shole Mashao tries to get answers from Amanda Qithi, Eskom Gauteng spokesperson.

Qithi maintains that power was restored to affected areas after the Zola substation fire in June this year.

Where power has not been restored, there must be another reason for this, she says.

"There's a process that we follow and, in that process, if we find that customers had either bypassed their meters or had illegally connected themselves, then they would be issued with fines and they would need to pay those."

Amanda Qithi, Gauteng spokesperson - Eskom

In the Dobsonville case though, there has been no mention of unpaid fines in the community's interaction with Eskom, according to Molete.

Qithi has pledged to follow up with the Eskom managers in charge of the area, to establish what the actual reason is for the alleged delay.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the conversation